The new London and South East University Group – LASE – officially launched on Monday 7 September 2026, marked by the unveiling of a specially commissioned light sculpture, lighting up at each of the Group’s four campuses.
From 7 September all 50,000 students can access all four campuses across the Group. Students needing student support services will be able to request them at the location of their choice, and can also use any of the libraries across the campuses.
Founding Vice-Chancellor and CEO of LASE, Professor Jane Harrington, said: “Since we first announced our intention exactly a year ago this week to formally explore a merger, we have been clear that students will continue to apply to, study at and graduate from their chosen university of Kent or Greenwich.
“However, LASE will enable us to build on our collective strengths and create greater benefit for our 50,000 students across the group. From day one, they will have access to all our campuses, and over time we will be able to expand the services offered to them. We’ll also be able to work with our industry partners and organisations more strategically to look at more developed employment opportunities for students.”
The official launch follows a year of intense work to develop the unique multi-university group model and secure approval of the model from the Department for Education and Office for Students. In readiness for the launch, all Kent and Greenwich staff became employees of LASE on 1 August – when the merger legally completed – whilst retaining their current terms and conditions and pensions.
Says Professor Harrington: “Many universities are grappling to balance the books right now. Domestic tuition fees were frozen between 2017 and 2025, during a period that saw significant inflation, the Covid-19 pandemic and a major cost of living crisis, creating substantial financial pressures across the sector. More recently, international student recruitment has also been affected by changes in government policy and wider geopolitical uncertainty. Kent and Greenwich have done the hard work to ensure we are independently in stable financial health, enabling us to enter a merger from a position of strength.”
“The staff at both Greenwich and Kent are amazing – they have really stepped up to deliver this merger and ensure that we now have an exciting, future-focused model that we hope will be a blueprint for others.
“As we get ready to begin our first academic year as LASE University Group, we wanted to mark the start. The sculpture is meant as a celebration of what we have achieved to get to this point, a coming together of our four diverse campuses, and a welcome to our 50,000 students, 7,000 staff and many more thousands of people across the region who will benefit from our super-university.”